Legendary College Hoops Coach, Eddie Sutton, Passes Away

A couple of weeks ago, the NFL world lost legendary coach Don Shula and on Saturday it was college basketball’s turn as they lost legendary coach Eddie Sutton. The recent Hall Of Fame inductee was 84 years old and he passed away from natural causes at his home in South Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was just less than two months ago that Sutton was informed he would be apart of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame 2020 class. The same class that Kobe Bryant will be in. The pair will be inducted in August.

Eddie Sutton coached college hoops for 37 years and he was the first coach to take four different teams to the NCAA Tournament. He began his career with five years at Creighton, before moving on to Arkansas For 11 years. He was 260-75 in his time with the Hogs and he took them to the NCAA Tournament nine times but Arkansas went to the Final four just once in those nine tries.

After Arkansas, he moved on to Kentucky for four years and went 90-40 in his time there. Kentucky went to the NCAA tournament in three of his four years there but they did not make it to the Final Four. We also note that his last year in Kentucky was a losing season at 13-16, which was the only full losing season he had in his collegiate coaching career. He was 6-13 in his last year of coaching, which was at San Francisco, but it was not a full season for him. He left Kentucky under a cloud of controversy. In 1988, the NCAA levied 18 charges against the school, following a Los Angeles Daily News report that stated Kentuck assistant Dwane Casey sent a $1,000 package to the father of Kentucky recruit Chris Mills. The school was put on probation for two years while Sutton and Casey both maintained their innocence.

Sutton then moved on to Oklahoma State for 16 seasons and he went 368-151 in his time there. He took the Cowboys to the NCAA Tournament 13 times, which included two Final Four appearances. Oklahoma State was his alma mater. He played there from 1955-1958 and averaged 6.6 ppg and 2.6 rebounds per game in 69 games played. In 2005, the court at Gallagher-Iba Arena was named the Eddie Sutton Court.

Sutton did it all in his career and he won nine regular-season conference titles overall while grabbing eight conference tournament titles, but the one thing he was missing was a national title. Still, he is one of just eight coaches to rack up at least 800 wins in their career. One of his best coaching moments was probably in 1984 when his unraked Arkansas team topped an undefeated North Carolina team that had Michael Jordan on it. The Hogs won that game 65-64. Legendary broadcaster Dick Enberg called the game and he called the celebration "Pandemonium in Pine Bluff!"

He is survived by his three sons and their families. Scott Sutton coached at Oral Roberts for 18 years and is the school's all-time winningest coach. He is currently an assistant coach at Oklahoma State. Sean Sutton coached Oklahoma State for two seasons after his father stepped down He is now part of the coaching staff at Texas Tech. Eddie Sutton will be missed.

Info Gleaned From ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports